“I gotter see the twins—I jest gotter see ’em,” said Sadie, faintly.
“And whether that Caslon is fit to have charge of you,” bitterly added Mr. Steele, “I have my doubts.”
“Oh, surely, you will let her see her little brothers?” cried Ruth, pleadingly.
“We will arrange about that—ahem!” said Mr. Steele. “But I will communicate at once—by long distance telephone—with the matron of the institution from which she came, and they can send a representative here to talk with me——”
“And take me back there?” exclaimed Sadie. “No, I sha’n’t! I sha’n’t go! So there!”
“Hoity-toity, Miss! Let’s have no more of it, if you please,” said the gentleman, sternly. “You will stay here for the present. Don’t you try to run away from me, for if you do, I’ll soon have you brought back. We intend to treat you kindly here, but you must not abuse our kindness.”
It was perhaps somewhat puzzling to Sadie Raby—this attitude of the very severe gentleman. She had not been used to much kindness in her life, and the sort that is forced on one is not generally appreciated by the wisest of us. Therefore it is not strange if Sadie failed to understand that Mr. Steele really meant to be her friend.
“Come away, Sadie,” whispered Ruth, quite troubled herself by the turn affairs had taken. “I am so sorry—but it will all come right in the end——”
“If by comin’ right, Miss, you means that I am goin’ to see them twins, you can jest bet it will all come right,” returned Sadie, gruffly, when they were out in the hall. “For see ’em I will, an’ him, nor nobody else, won’t stop me. As for goin’ back to them Perkinses, or to the orphanage, we’ll see ‘bout that,” added Sadie, to herself, and grimly.
Ruth feared very much that Mr. Steele would not have been quite so stern and positive with the runaway, had it not been for his dislike for the Caslons. Had Sadie’s brothers been stopping with some other neighbor, would Mr. Steele have delayed letting the runaway girl go to see them?